Author
Topic: Preparing for the Coming Storm, Team Two (Read 1091 times)

I'm assuming King still has nothing to say until we actually enter the forest, so I'm going to go ahead an post. Will delete if otherwise instructed

Well, that was certainly a good diversity of weapons. An apparently shape-shifting sword, an assault rifle/jetpack combo, and a...stick. Well it certainly didn't leave an impression on me, that's for sure, Smokey idly thought to himself as Justice exhibited his weapon.

"Alright, at least we have a good idea of what to expect from each other now. Anyways, we still good on the plan of 'walking in aimlessly as a group' til we find something? 'Cause, from the looks of it, that still sounds like our best bet."

Justice took a quick look at the rest of the group before turning his attention to the forest. "It is a simple prospect, really. Stick close, keep in communication, and most importantly..." Justice said, taking a step out into the forest and starting the mission in earnest. "Enjoy yourselves."

As the group started to make their way through the woods there were two things that very quickly being apparent. One, every now and then the hunters in training would feel a small brush on their aura, no where near strong enough to do damage almost similar to walking through weak paper, only holding the slightest tension before giving way. The second was nothing except for the hunters in training where moving; not a branch, leaf, not a blade of grass despite the wind continuing to blow. The glints of something metallic where harder to see within the forest with the lack of direct light but careful study would reveal them high up in the trees. Nothing immediately threatening happened for full minutes until the came across a medium sized human shaped droid not dissimilar to the Atlas Paladins. It fired a few shots of it's basic dust powered gun before retreating quickly deeper into the forest. Moving quickly the not quite Paladin could never out run a hunter in training and would continue to fire it's rifle as it fled.

Smokey took up the rear of the group, keeping his gun rested on his shoulder. He kept his head on a swivel, looking for anything that looked out of place. Unfortunately, everything looked out of place, so...mission accomplished? The lack of movement in the forest was strangely unnerving, and that experienced was enhanced by the continued presence of the metallic glints high in the trees. Oh, there was also that thing where his aura would react occasionally. That was especially creepy. Perhaps there was an unseen force at play here, and that could be bad. Smokey can't shoot things he can't see.

Still, the trek through the forest was otherwise relatively monotonous until a bullet whizzed past his head. Turning his head to look at the source, Smokey saw what was best described as a lone, miniature Paladin. It was using hit and run tactics, but it wasn't moving very fast. Even Smokey could probably catch up to it if he hustled. That being said...

"So, I got 5 lien it's trying to bait us into a trap," Smokey said dryly. He didn't raise his gun to fire at the droid for two reasons. One, it was still pretty far away, probably outside Matchstick's range. Two, Smokey didn't want to waste a use of his semblance. He only got so many of those, and the cool down period could easily be turned against him. For now, he figures it'd be best to see if the others had anything they'd like to try.

As they walked Revya would snap his hand to the hilt of Scarlet every time they felt the pulse on their aura. Everything about this situation was making all of his instincts scream danger. But there was nothing there. As a result when a tangible threat presented itself Revya was almost happy to see it, though still cautious enough to not try and engage in melee, he did Draw Scarlet and ignite the fire dust, throwing a fireball at the machine more as a reaction than anything else. missing by a pretty wide margin he turned to Smokey. "No bet. Though we can't just leave it alone can we?"

Logged

1st year reckless idiot of team LGGR- Gray Saggio- "oh screw it. I'll just hit it till it dies!" 660066

Justice fruitlessly pulsed his semblance out from time to time in the vain hope of figuring out the enemy's formation. There was certainly something off about this scenario. The automatons seem to be either sophisticated beyond their initial description or programmed against hunters and huntresses. Either would be possible in this case, although Justice would prefer the prior, if only for the enjoyment. "Obviously, we're just getting to the interesting part." Justice said, picking up the pace after the automaton.

Every time Nahtan's Aura reacted to the... odd resistance that occurred every now and then, he flinched. Seriously, what the hell was that? It almost felt like a spider web. Was there some sort of sensor set up by the robots?

Not too long afterwards, one of the aforementioned robots was encountered. It shot at them, landing literally nothing, and kept doing so while backing off. After ducking behind a tree, because being careless was bad, Nathan took out Ergia into rifle form and started shooting back, following his squad as he did. "It's 100% a trap."

(sooooooo opps. No pressure if you guys don't want to continue, I already know Mike isn't around much anymore)

Although the no-quite-Paladin wasn’t particularly heavily armoured it still took a few of Nathan’s rounds before they started finding their mark. Clearly ‘skilled’ at cutting the hunters-in-training’s sightlines the droid was darting between the trees to prolong its ‘life,’ fruitlessly of course as the combined weight of Nathan’s fire and Revya’s fireball was simply too much punishment for its light chassis to handle. With a crackle, fizzle and a pop the droid crashed down motionless, likely the forest was kept rather moist by the ‘rain’ so only small bits of shrub started to catch alight. Luckily for the hunters-in-training whatever they were testing seemed to desire to remained unburnt as them which resulted in a thick fog starting to fill the forest. Despite the obvious benefits of extinguishing the fires fog had the far more pressing effect by drastically reducing the hunters-in-training field of vision making seeing where they were going and where they came from almost impossible.

Nothing else of interest would transpire for a good half an hour as the hunters-in-training continued deeper into the forest. If they decided to investigate the destroyed droid they would find very little of recoverable information but it could serve as an impromptu shield or bomb given it's not insignificant dust storage. Even though whatever power was hiding within the forest didn’t continue to act directly there was clearly something moving out there hidden by the undergrowth and thick fog. The snapping of twigs echoed a thousand times over in the otherwise silent forest coming from all around the party as well as strange rustling like the wind blowing across rocky outcrops. Nothing that can be detected through aura and if the hunters-in-training tried to chase after the sounds there would be nothing but the figurative wind and a significant chance of getting separated. The sounds started to grow in intensity until finally after almost an hour of silence things started to emerge from the fog.

Two worms like robotic creatures emerged with another two following behind all coming in from the left of the party. They are massive constructs, over ten meters or thirty feet in length visible and more hidden by the fog and another few feet or meter in radius. A gaping maw of razor-sharp teeth rotating like drill struck out with surprising speed, one at each of the hunters-in-training for a frenzied flurry of drilled teeth bites but those were merely a distraction as every bite that went wide was an opportunity that the robotic worms used to wrap around their opponents. This was where their real danger lay, as if they managed to get wrapped around their target they would release a huge amount on ice dust, hoping to render the hunter-in-training temporarily powerless then retract back into the fog.

As the automaton fell to Nathan and Revya’s onslaught, Smokey cautiously approached it, making sure to keep an eye out for anything else that might shoot at him. Seeing nothing, Smokey took a moment to examine the robot. Unfortunately, Smokey’s expertise lies primarily in violence, not robotics. He might be able to explode the dust in its core if he shot it, but that’s about all he could gather from a cursory investigation.

The more pressing matter is the fog rolling in. Rather than trying to spring a trap, it seems whatever’s out there is still bent on wasting his time. Smokey doesn’t really have anyway of speeding the search up, so unless any of the other group has any bright ideas, he’d pretty much continue wandering aimlessly with the group until something of interest happened. And as the minutes ticked by, Smokey would occasionally break the eerie silence with an agitated comment, ”Didn’t that lady say we were supposed to have this done in 30 minutes? Where the hell is everything?”

Smokey’s not an expert in tracking, detection, or any form of counter-stealth. He’s much more at home in a straight-up brawl, so this constant lack of action is starting to grate on him. He’s only further exasperated when the sounds of twigs snapping start to echo throughout the forest, indicating that something is here, but it’s refusing to make a move. Obviously, going after it would be foolish, but Smokey considers doing so anyway just to alleviate his boredom.

After an hour of walking around like chickens with their heads cut off Smokey’s relieved to finally have something emerge from the fog that isn’t another god-damned tree. ”Finally—Oh Shi—“ Smokey’s cut off as a gigantic worm-like construct lunges at him, forcing him to react.

Activating his semblance, Smokey dives to the left of the gaping maw trying to engulf him, but he’s too slow to dodge it entirely. Instead, he grabs on to the lip of the machine, even as the drill-like teeth try dig past his aura. For the record, it hurts like hell. But it’s better than the alternative, and now the giant automaton has to fight against the effects of Immovable Object.

As the worm-like thing collides into Smokey, the gunslinger is pushed back into the fog. Yes, his semblance is active, but it only renders him partially immune to displacement forces. Anything big enough can push him aside with enough power, and it’s only thanks to his semblance that Smokey isn’t blasted off deep into the forest. Instead, he is merely pushed, causing him to slide on the ground as the behemoth construct loses more and more momentum the longer it struggles against him. Meanwhile, Smokey flips the switch on Matchstick, causing it to transform into the seven-barreled volley gun. The drill-teeth hurt, sure. But Smokey’s capable of dishing out just as much pain and more!

Raising the volley gun and pointing it down the gullet of the machine with one hand, Smokey pulls the trigger, aiming for anything that looks remotely critical inside the construct. He’s only firing with one hand, but it’s kind of hard to miss at this range. Firing a fully-loaded volley might be a bit much, but there’s just no kill like overkill.

Situation-wise, regardless if Smokey’s efforts incapacitate the robot or not, Smokey has been pushed into the fog away from his team. He could probably follow the length of the machine back to the group, and vice versa, but for now, he can’t see the rest of the team, he’s just unloaded all of his ammo, and he just took a hefty hit.